Kancheli at 'Little Georgia' 17 - 18 December 2011

  

Giya Kancheli

Giya Kancheli is Georgia's leading composer. 

Throughout his distinguished career, Giya Kancheli has written extensively for film and theatre and collaborated with many of Georgia's leading directors including Robert Sturua, Eldar Shengelaya and Georgi Danelia. A book of the composer's themes for stage and screen was published in 2009, 'Simple Music for Piano' with drawings by Rezo Gabriadze. 

BGS is celebrating Kancheli's 75th year at London's exciting and newest Georgian Restaurant, Tinatin Tuskadze's Little Georgia. During the weekend, films with Kancheli scores will be screened and on Sunday evening the Georgian pianist Alisa Tavdidishvili will perform some of the 33 pieces from 'Simple Music for Piano' by Giya Kancheli.

BGS Christmas Party and Kancheli Book Launch 18/12/2011

BGS Christmas Party 2011

 

Go to Kancheli at 'Little Georgia' 17 - 18 December 2011 for full details. View summary of timings (as pdf).

Confidence-building efforts in the Caucasus: the NGO dimension 19th January 2012

A joint BGS/King's College briefing/seminar

War Studies Meeting Room, 6th Floor, King's Building, Strand Campus, King's College London. 6 - 8 pm.

'An Orphan in the Caucasus' - Talk by Donald Rayfield 17th November

Professor Donald Rayfield'An Orphan in the Caucasus': the mysterious origins and connections of the Georgian Langauge

Donald Rayfield will discuss the relationship (proven and possible) between Georgian and other European, Anatolian and other Caucasian languages, and the way various theories have been manipulated over the last century or two.

Emeritus Professor of Russian at Queen Mary, University of London, author of 'The Literature of Georgia', editor-in-chief of 'A Comprehensive Georgian-English Dictionary' and having just completed a 'History of Georgia', Donald Rayfield is undoubtedly one of the most interesting and popular speakers at BGS events. Not to be missed by anyone interested in Georgia.

November 17th at 6.30pm in the Research Forum South Room at the Courtauld Institute.

Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 0RN

RSVP to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Our grateful thanks to the Courtauld Institute for making this event possible.

 

 

A Trip to Karabakh (Gaseirneba Kharabakhshi)

A Trip To KarabakhWinner of the 'Golden Vine' - Grand Prize at the CIS and Baltic States Festival. A collaboration between director Levan Tutberidze and writer Aka Morchiladze. It follows the journey of two young men from Tbilisi to Azerbaijanin search of drugs, who accidentally end up in war-torn Karabakh. This is a poignant and entertaining film about the futility of war and the contradictions and complexities of the South Caucasus. The film is being shown with English sub-titles. 105 minutes. Please email info@britishgeorgian society.org if you wish to attend.

Georgian Embassy 7.00pm Wednesday 12th October

4 Russell Gardens
London W14 8EZ
020 7603 7799

 



Georgian Studies Day 2nd November 2011

GEORGIA REALLY MATTERS celebrating 25 years of the Annual Georgian Studies Day. November 2nd at the University of Westminster, Regent Street campus. Speakers include the Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia. E-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 28th October if you wish to attend.

Keto and Kote introduced by Gela Charkviani

The earliest full-scale Georgian cinematic musical Keto and Kote (1948), based on the comic opera by Viktor Dolidze, was screened at the Georgian Embassy in April 2011, with the first showing of a newly restored print. Directed by Vakhtang Tabliashvili and Shalva Gedevanishvili, starring leading actors of different generations, such as Medea Japaridze, Veriko Andjaparidze, Vaso Godziashvili and Akaki Kvantaliani, the film features splendid music, choreography and humour.

In a wonderfully entertaining and fascinating introduction Gela Charkviani, the distinguished diplomat, TV personality and former Ambassador to the UK and Ireland, described how the Chattanooga Choo Choo did more for American diplomacy than the CIA ever could.

My English Grandfather (1986) anu chemi ingliseli Papa

 

Director Nana Djordjadze made the only Georgian film to be nominated for an oscar, A Chef in Love (1996). Her 1986 comedy, My English Grandfather also called Robinson Crusoe in Georgia hence Robinsoniada, was entered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival and won the prestigious Caméra d'Or as a first feature. Djordjadze (born in 1948) graduated in architecture but started acting and then in 1974 enrolled in the film classes of Tengiz Abuladze and Irakli Kvririkadze in the Faculty of Film Direction at the Rustaveli State Theatre Institute, Tbilisi. Like other leading Georgian filmmakers of the time, Djordjadze left Georgia in the early 1990s and has made her home in Berlin. 

 

BGS Annual Dinner

Speaker at BGS Annual DinnerThis year's annual Supra for BGS members will take place on 27th September at 7.30pm. There will be a theme this year - Past and Present Georgians in the UK - presented by David Gigauri. The event will take place at Tamada, Tamara Lordkipanidze's popular Georgian restaurant in St John's Wood, with support from Gaumarjos and Geo Wines. The cost of the evening will be £30 per person including a special menu with additional seasonal dishes and wine.

2011 AGM

The 2011 AGM took place on Thursday 20th October at 18:30 in the Georgian Embassy. Reports were given by the Chair, Treasurer and Secretary and members approved the accounts and appointment of directors to the board. Draft minutes from the meeting will be sent by e-mail to all members. For further details, please contact Robert Scallon, secretary.

Bill McAlister's talk Shadows of Forgotten Memories recalls his adventures in Georgia, a country he first visited in 1998, and his many experiences with various cultural institutions and individuals. 

Georgian Ambassador HE Giorgi Badridze arrived in London in 2007 as Minister and Deputy Head of Mission. He spoke about his experiences in London, first arriving when HE Gela Charkviani was Ambassador, the 2008 war, and his own appointment as Ambassador to the UK and Ireland in 2009.

Our thanks to Ambassador Badridze and his staff at the Embassy for hosting the meeting. 

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News

Talk and Book Launch of 'Unveiling Vazha Pshavela' on 1 March 2019 @ Asia House

On 1 March 2018 Asia House, the BGS and the Embassy of Georgia to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will host a an evening of events inspired by the late 19th and early 20th century century Georgian poet Vazha Pshavela. This will a book launch of 'Unveiling Vazha Pshavela', poetry readings, talks and Georgian polyphonic singing. 'Unveiling Vazha Pshavela' is the most comprehensive book to date of the poet's works in English. The publication is initiated by Georgian/British artist Andro Semeiko as part of his project investigating notions of self and motherland - through landscape, ethnography, and language of Vazha Pshavela. The poems in the book have been selected to illustrate the poet's powerful, tragic, often Shakespearean force, as well as the development of his ideas and approach to nature, very relevant to ecological politics in the world today. They have been translated by Donald Rayfield OBE. The book includes specially commissioned works by the contemporary Georgian writer Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili.

2018 Annual Rustaveli Day and AGM - 27th November 6pm at the Royal Asiatic Society

The BGS Rustaveli Day and Annual General Meeting will be held at 6pm on the 27th November 2018 at at the Royal Asiatic Society. The AGM will be followed by a talk 'The British-Georgian actress Miki Iveria – the story of Princess Gayane Mickeladze' by Dr Henry Sanford and a book presentation by Professor Elguja Khintibidze. The event will be followed by Georgian wine & canapes provided by Tamada Restaurant.

British Author Katie Ruth Davies New Book Set In Georgia

According to HE Tamar Beruchashvili Katie Ruth Davies "is a prominent author, journalist and supermum. She’s an expert in many things, including vampires!’’. Editor-in-Cheif of Georgia Today, Katie now lives in Georgia with her partner and 3 children. She is author of the Blood Omen books and is on a publishing tour of the UK (next week she will be in Bristol) promoting her first young adult book set in Georgia Angel (book one of the new Dark Wings series). Robert Edgar was at her London book launches at the Georgian Embassy and Primrose Hill Library and wrote in Georgia Today

Discovering Places: Georgia at Royal Geographical Society

The Royal Geographical Society is having an event on Georgia, on Wednesday 21st February 2018, 7pm - 9pm. It is part of their Discovering Places series and has an expert panel of Donald Rayfield (writer, historian and regular BGS speaker), Olia Hercules (chef and author of Kaukasis), and Marta Hills (a sustainable tourism expert and regular backpacker). Follow this link for further details.

Colour Of Pomegranates Limited Edition Blu-ray And Special Screening At ICA

Sergei Parajanov’s celebrated masterwork The Colour Of Pomegranates paints an astonishing portrait of the 18th century Armenian poet Sayat Nova, the ‘King of Song’ and now arrives on Blu-ray for the first time, presented in a stunning new restoration by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with the National Cinema Centre of Armenia and Gosfilmofond of Russia.

The film arrives as The Colour Of Pomegranates Limited Edition Box Set, a luxury two-disc collector’s set on Blu-ray complete with a 112-page perfect-bound book, a host of brand new special features, archive material, short film, documentaries and both the Armenian and Russian versions of the film. It arrives on 29 January 2018.

There will be a special screening of the film on January 27th at 4.15pm at the ICA, introduced by Daniel Bird.Please see the link here.

BBC Radio 4 Food Programme on Georgia

Two excellent programmes presented by Dan Saldino are available on BBC iPlayer Radio. Feast Like a Georgian: A Food Guide to the Caucasus., first broadcast on 4th September, features food writer Carla Capalbo, author of Tasting Georgia (published earlier this summer), guiding Dan through a supra. Zero Compromise: A (Georgian) Natural Wine Story., broadcast on 11th September, has Dan Saladino travelling into the Caucasus in search of "zero compromise" natural wine makers. He finds them in Georgia, thought to be the birthplace of wine, and home of the qvevri.

Armand Wang's photos of BGS events available on Facebook

Photographer Armand Wang, a BGS member, wonderfully captures the atmosphere at BGS events in his descriptive photos and regularly posts them on the BGS Facebook page. Here are links to recent events Conversation with the two Ambassadors and Second Annual Charity Festival hosted by Tamada

Cancellation of 12 June event at Pembroke College

On behalf of the British Georgian Society, the board would like to update you about this year's BGS Cambridge Seminar at Pembroke College. The event at Pembroke on Monday 12 June is now cancelled. The keynote speaker, Georgian Defence Minister Levon Izoria, had to call off his visit to the UK in mid June. We apologise for any inconvenience - and hope you will understand the organisers' decision in the circumstances to put the event off for a future occasion.

A Poet Is Born: Nikolaz Baratashvili 27th April 2017 Asia House

As the first month of spring slowly comes to an end, on Thursday 27th April, 18.45 at Asia House Donald Rayfield remembers Georgian poet Nikoloz Baratashvili  (1817-1845). On the occasion of his 200th birth anniversary, Donald Rayfield Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London will give a talk, A Poet Is Born: Nikolaz Baratashvili. For further information and tickets go to the Asia House website.

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Direct Flights From London To Georgia

There have been recent announcements that various airlines will operate direct flights from London to Georgia. The Hungarian owned low cost Wizz Air will commence bi-weekly flights from Luton to Kutaisi from 18th June 2017. This will be followed by Georgian Airlines (Airzena) flying directly from Gatwick to Tbilisi, also twice a week. Start dates to be confirmed. There is also an article on the online outlet commersant.ge that Ryanair will also commence flights from London to Tbilisi.